Mr. Turner has also remarked upon the capitals of the columns at Montivilliers, which are very peculiar. Some of them are obvious imitations of the antique pattern, and of great beauty. Others are as rude and wild as any of those already figured in this work, from the churches of St. Georges or Gournay. The mysteries of Christianity, and the fables and allegories of heathenism, the latter, as well in its most refined as its most barbarous forms, occur in endless variety in almost every part of the edifice. One of the capitals contains a representation of the fabulous Sphynx, with her tail ending in a fleur-de-lys: upon another, is sculptured a figure of Christ in the act of destroying the Dragon, by thrusting the end of a crosier into its mouth. Two others, figured in the _Tour in Normandy_, exhibit a group of Centaurs, and the allegorical _psychostasia_: the remarks of the author of that publication, upon the latter of these, shall close the present article:--"In this you observe an angel weighing the good works of the deceased against his evil deeds; and, as the former are far exceeding the avoirdupois upon which Satan is to found his claim, he is endeavoring most unfairly to depress the scale with his two-pronged fork.--This allegory is of frequent occurrence in the monkish legends.--The saint, who was aware of the frauds of the fiend, resolved to hold the balance himself.--He began by throwing in a pilgrimage to a miraculous virgin.--The devil pulled out an assignation with some fair mortal Madonna, who had ceased to be immaculate.--The saint laid in the scale the sackcloth and ashes of the penitent of Lenten-time.--Satan answered the deposit by the vizard and leafy robe of the masker of the carnival. Thus did they still continue equally interchanging the sorrows of godliness with the sweets of sin; and still the saint was distressed beyond compare, by observing that the scale of the wicked thing (wise men call him the correcting principle,) always seemed the heaviest. Almost did he despair of his client's salvation, when he luckily saw eight little jetty black claws just hooking and clenching over the rim of the golden basin. The claws at once betrayed the craft of the cloven foot. Old Nick had put a little cunning young devil under the balance, who, following the dictates of his senior, kept clinging to the scale, and swaying it down with all his might and main. The saint sent the imp to his proper place in a moment; and instantly the burthen of transgression was seen to kick the beam.--Painters and sculptors also often introduced this ancient allegory of the balance of good and evil, in their representations of the last judgment: it was even employed by Lucas Kranach." NOTES: [187] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 108. [188] _Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 69. PLATE LXXXIII. CHURCH OF ST. SANSON SUR RILLE. [Illustration: Plate 83. CHURCH OF ST. SANSON SUR RILLE. _Remains of & capitals._]